Vehicles, such as automobiles, light-duty trucks, and heavy-duty trucks, play an important role in the lives of many people. To keep vehicles operational, some of those people rely on vehicle technicians to diagnose and repair their vehicle.
Vehicle technicians use a variety of tools in order to diagnose and/or repair vehicles. Those tools may include common hand tools, such as wrenches, hammers, pliers, screwdrivers and socket sets, or more vehicle-specific tools, such as cylinder hones, piston ring compressors, and vehicle brake tools. The tools used by vehicle technicians may also include electronic diagnostic tools such as a digital voltage-ohm meter (DVOM) or a vehicle scan tool that communicates with an electronic control unit (ECU) within a vehicle.
A number of different types of diagnostic tools have been used, such as engine analyzers, which are designed to monitor a variety of operating conditions of an internal combustion engine, and scanners for downloading data from vehicle on-board computers, such as the ECU. In addition, diagnostic tools may include laboratory-type tools like oscilloscopes, digital volt-ohm meters (DVOM) and the like.
Electronic diagnostic tools include displays for providing the desired information to a technician. These displays are often interactive so the technician can easily retrieve whatever information is needed. However, current tools have operating systems that require multiple steps to retrieve certain specific information regarding the vehicle.
By providing the repair technician with detailed information for quickly diagnosing and repairing vehicles, vehicle repair times can be decreased, vehicle turn-over is increased, and as a result, repair technicians may reap increased profits from a same amount of garage space.